Chain 111: A Song Of Ice And Fire

Chain 111: A Song Of Ice And Fire
Location: [-50] King's Landing, 297 AC
Identity: Drop-In
Drawbacks: None

[100/950]  Prince In Exile
[300/950]  Large
[450/950]  The Builder
[650/950]  Schemer
[850/950]  Pyromancer
[900/950]  Dragonglass Cache (x2)
[950/950] Brave Companions: Demona, Conspiracy

Great, now I have to adjust my armor AGAIN. I'm more than ten feet tall, and I'm striding right into King's Landing for shits and giggles because I'm going to kick the ENTIRE GODDAMN PLOT IN THE TEETH. Giant? No, I'm no giant, you're all just short. Didn't you eat enough as a child? You look practically starved! (This statement amused the King, in particular.) But no, this is a trait that runs in the royal family over there; of course, not everyone is eleven feet tall.

(Damn glad I didn't take Thanos' throne, it would be too small for me now.)

On the plus side, appearing in court as a foreign prince from some imaginary land to the distant southwest was an amusing enough pasttime, though describing a constitutional monarchy perplexed many of the locals; I told them I was out to see the world for a bit after having spent much of my childhood cloistered and learning, to see how things are done in other kingdoms and to establish relations. But I had the Conspiracy to aid me as needed, and Demona to help me keep up appearances, so the details were easy to fake. Not to mention making fast friends with King Robert, if only because I could keep up with his drinking and still look after him.

While I was essentially a guest in the court, it served to keep things interesting. Especially after the Hand of the King recovered from his illness, not very long after I had visited him. While we had not been close friends, he was a man of some import, and visiting in his convalescence didn't raise any particular flags. The king had invited Ned Stark down to serve as Acting Hand while Jon Arryn recovered, but in truth, he was spending this time investigating further and attempting to tie everything up as best as he could.

On the plus side, I managed to catch a kid who was falling off the tower, chided him about climbing buildings, told him to fetch his father with urgency, and then promptly marched inside and caught a pair of Lannisters in flagrante delicto. Jaime, in particular, did not think through his actions. Actions like, for instance, trying to stab me with his sword. Which I grabbed bare-handed and snapped, because swords are meant to harm men and not hulking brutes, though it did slice my palm.

"You're Lannisters, not Targaryens. Get your clothes on and get downstairs, your king awaits," I grumbled at them, before embedding the broken hilt of the sword into the door. And indeed he was waiting, as Bran had interrupted discourse between his father and the king, and both were in attendance as the pair were caught red-handed. Cersei attempted to act indignant and stutter out lies; Jaime, on the other hand, opted to simply take the Black in order to spare inevitable problems. And both Ned and I acted to calm Robert so he wouldn't take any actions that he would immediately regret.

Eventually, Cersei and her children were exiled to languish in Lannisport, though the children were quietly declared bastards and stripped of their previous rights; alas, Cersei took ill on the trip and passed away before she made it home, while the children were brought into employ as servants. Joffrey lasted almost a whole six months there, too, before picking the wrong fight and getting his throat cut by a child living on the street. The others had more intelligence, at least, and as they didn't pick fights like entitled idiots they lived happy and relatively prosperous lives.

The Starks returned, word of the Others came, and the call to action was heeded... albeit with a bit of resistance, until undead were sent around in reinforced chains to the various provinces to prove they were what they appeared. Meanwhile, it turned out that wildfire was amazingly effective when used against the undead, especially the aged caches under King's Landing, which I got to enjoy tossing their way. Unfortunately, using them on wights was rather... ineffective.

On the plus side, without an army of the undead, having elites marching forward alone to fight is much less effective. And... well, I gave the Night's Watch a crash course with the rune package - with a focus on environmental control. Warming charms, most primarily. Between that and all the obsidian that could be gathered, the bitter cold was suddenly a great deal more tolerable to the Night's Watch, and their war against the Others was far easier, far more successful.

In the meantime further south, King Robert found a lovely little lady, one Brienne of Tarth, and they managed to accumulate a lovely little household together. It was cute.

Meanwhile, five years after my arrival, I headed out to the Free Cities and met a woman people kept calling Khaleesi. She was pleasant, but I pointed out that her plan to take the Kingdoms was critically flawed, eased her into different ideas behind different governments, and instead helped her unite the Free Cities into a republic and gave her a proper uplifting-with-runes package to build a better society with. After all, the old ways had brought nothing but heartache, perhaps it was time to try a different way.